About Us
Our Mission
To support and advocate for the mental health and well-being of Palestinian children affected by war trauma and displacement.
Our Work
Children living in Gaza in the wake of October 7, 2023 have experienced life-altering trauma that will require years of treatment toward healing and recovery. Thousands of children have had their lives torn apart by this conflict. They have lost parents, family members, and community, in addition to enduring medical trauma, starvation, and repeated displacement.Gaza’s Children is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children in Palestine through strategic partnerships, innovation, direct services, and community building. Our focus is working with children on their healing journeys, and helping to restore hope and joy to their lives.
Our Vision
Mental health services available to all Palestinian children
Evidence-based treatments focused on addressing the unique traumas experienced by Palestinian children in the aftermath of October 7, 2023
Global awareness of the Palestinian child's experience
Protection of Palestinian children's rights to innocence and joy
Layla Summers, J.D., M.A.
Founder / Executive Director
Layla Summers is an attorney, mental-health clinician, and activist who has spent the past twenty years advocating for and supporting children. Through her private law practice, Layla fought for the wellbeing of children affected by physical and sexual abuse, both in the United States and internationally, including serving as court-appointed minor’s counsel in California. After earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Layla expanded her passion for child welfare by working with nonprofit organizations focused on providing mental-health services to underserved communities. As an advocate, Layla has worked with the ACLU and the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women and was recognized by the California State Bar for her dedicated pro bono efforts.
Kate Summers, LCSW
Kate Summers is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She worked for many years at a Los Angeles County outpatient mental health clinic, and later did mental health assessments in the county’s jails for the ACLU. For several years she has served as a Buddhist chaplain in the county’s women’s jail, and is a long- time member of the ACLU of Southern California’s Foundation Board.
Dorothy M. Gibbons-White, J.D.
Dorothy M. Gibbons-White is an attorney and social justice activist with over twenty years of experience advocating in court for women and children. Dorothy has also provided counsel for the formation of nonprofit organizations and advised directors on their board duties. She has worked extensively in local politics in Los Angeles and advocated for activists and organizations serving underserved communities. Dorothy’s passion for both child and human rights has led her to her position on the Gaza's Children Board of Directors as a founding member and as the organization's General Counsel.
Natasha Nadia Matar, RSW, RP(Qualifying) DTATI (Cand)
Tasha Nadia Matar is a mixed Palestinian-Polish Registered Social Worker and Registered Psychotherapist. She is the founder of Tahrir Therapy, a private practice dedicated to liberation-oriented, anti-oppressive and culturally informed therapy. Tasha has offered art-based therapy services internationally in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in UNWRA ‘48 camps, freelanced at the Centre For Victims of Torture, as well as ABRAR Trauma and Mental Health, serving newcomers and refugees. She is passionate about offering play and art-based trauma therapy for diasporas and displaced people ranging from youth to older adults who are silently carrying stories of survival in their new homes. Trauma-informed, somatically-focused, and culturally safe approaches are at the heart of her practice. Through therapeutic art and dialogue, she offers a space for voices to be heard, and witnessed through art therapy when words or language barriers can’t do justice to the wounds of political trauma.